Travels Down I-85: A MD of the North Carolina Piedmont (Update 9.15.07)

[Frankie]

nice update! the only suggestion i have is to get the 'no one way road arrows' mod, (sorry, those arrows just bug me )


Edit: One more thing, I plan on BATting some Industrial Sprawl (the large warehouse like structures that are actually full manufacturing plants). I believe that such buildings would fit quite well into your CJ

...P.S. they're gonna be scaled...and they're gonna have to be huge.. 

[Pat]

Aaron awesome update and very intriguing interchange wow talk about intense Great job - Pat

[pickled_pig]

meinhosen - Thanks!  We're going to see a LOT more of Wellington as the city grows and eventually develops into a hopefully cosmopolitan yet still representative of the endless sprawl on the I-85 corridor.

emilin - Yeah thanks!  I'mtrying to model the network of Wellington on various NC Piedmont cities that I've been to, as well as other Southern cities I've viewed on Google Earth.  I was just looking at Augusta GA (at Frankie's reference to it in his MD) recently, for example.

iamgoingtoeatyou  Thank you for visiting!

Frankie - Some thoughts in response to what you said about Atlanta and Augusta GA: 
Charlotte, though, could also be classified under the "forest surrounded by downtown" approach from looking at it in the air - as could most postindustrial Southern cities that don't have large neighborhoods of row homes or six-family tenements could be - simply because downtown has grown so far and so fast that there is no traces of a true inner city.
(Compare that to Wellington, though, where I am attempting to create some inner-city areas.  Sometimes I tend to think that I am not only recreating the South but also trying to rebuilt it to my own standard)
Digressing there.  I would love to see how your industrial sprawl stuff comes out.  I started work yesterday on a sprawly high-tech area about a mile from downtown where I'm trying to make the best use of what BATS I already have.

Pat - Thanks for two great comments.  The interchanges in the Charlotte area, thouugh, are infinitely more complex than that one I showed.  Anyone who has tried to connect to I-77 from I-85 knows what I mean.  Being in the South for seven months, I was marveled by the dual simplicity and functionality of interchanges up in the North - here they are so complex...

I just wanted to get the comments out of the way for the time being.  I currently have about five hand-drawn maps, all relating to Wellington, in line to be scanned.  Update 15 will consist of those maps in context to the areas they represent.

-aaron

[sebes]

I currently have about five hand-drawn maps, all relating to Wellington, in line to be scanned.  Update 15 will consist of those maps in context to the areas they represent.

***drooling already***

 

[snorrelli]

Pretty good representation of small-town America here. Having travelled down 85 from NC to Atlanta countless times while going to school at Carolina, I am both interested to see this and get a little shudder at the thought of that damned road. I wonder is it still under interminable construction? The section that is 40 and 85 combined used to be a nightmare!

To make this truly realistic, you'd need some kind of reduced-capacity highways, combined with some of those traffic-generating lots and swarms of over-aggressive state troopers! For anyone who doesn't know, BE CAREFUL DRIVING THROUGH NORTH CAROLINA. They have a huge number of cops. I still notice driving around the south that if someone on the highway is going too slow in the left lane, there's a good chance the car will have NC plates - another terrorized North Carolinian that won't dare go more than 5 miles over the speed limit  .

In fact, I was actually arrested and spent a night in jail in Mecklenberg County (Charlotte) going home to Georgia the summer after my freshman year, for going 80 in a 55. At the time (may still be), NC had a law that anyone from out of state caught going more than 15 mph over the speed limit had to actually be booked and released on bail, so as to guarantee their appearance at the court date. The cop had me drive myself (following him) to the Mecklenberg County Jail in downtown Charlotte and park in front of the building. They took mugshots and fingerprints, took my belt and shoelaces (presumably so I wouldn't hang myself ) and threw my 19-year old butt in jail! You can imagine the "What are you in for?" conversations I had with my cell mates...

[thundercrack83]

Whoa, I missed an update there. Sorry about that! That interchange you made looks great, as do the shots of Wellington. Can't wait to see those hand-drawn maps in the next update!

[pickled_pig]

In total, I've made six hand-drawn maps of various areas of Wellington, four of which this update will focus on.

Two of them focus on US-11, one of the major arterial roads that cuts through Wellington and its metro area:


15.1)

US-11, though a 4-lane highway in more developed, older parts of Wellington, stretches to 6 lanes about two miles north and south of downtown.  This map shows an area that's probably going to be three miles south of Downtown, where US-11 has a controlled-access crossing with a NC route.


15.2)

Probably one if my favorite maps of this bunch. but besides the point there.  About five miles north of downtown lies UNC's Wellington branch, a once-rural campus that has been since surrounded by both suburban bog-box development as well as quainter-style development (subsidized in part by the City of Wellington to help reduce automobile use among UNC-Wellington students) in the style of college towns like Chapel Hill.
As one can tell from the existence of the street "Greek Lane", frats are (unfortunately) king at UNC-Wellington.  The institution is noted for having some of the lowest median SAT scores of the UNC sysyem - 470 reading, 490 math, 470 writing - and though SATs are not specifically the best predictor of college success, the low test scores do provide a peek insode the atmosphere of this school.
About a mile northwest of this intersection on US-11 (the 6-lane route) brings you to the Plaza at Norwood, one of the largest malls in North Carolina.


15.3)

The interstate-grade highway is actually NC-311, a short highway that connects I-685 (Wellington's outer belt) with I-185 (a three-mile freeway that serves Downtown).


15.4)
 
SR-56 meets I-85.  SR-56, though, has changed roads and is not "avenue" anymore, instead preferring the more stately "Wellington Road".
I have actually went ahead and built this area up in SC4, so that's where we're headed next update.

-aaron

[edited 4.21.07@1.30pm - The route number for the outer belt did not match that on the map on page 2]

[meinhosen]

Whew... I'm glad I'm not the only person who hand-draws maps for my cities.  What picks my interest is whether or not you've developed (in SC) any of those maps.  I'd like to see the result(s).

Either way, it gives us something to wait for. 

[mark]

Pickled_pig Wow!

awesome detail and thought put in to this md 

im in awe of the hand drawn maps

mark

[Gaston]

Pretty good representation of small-town America here. Having travelled down 85 from NC to Atlanta countless times while going to school at Carolina, I am both interested to see this and get a little shudder at the thought of that damned road. I wonder is it still under interminable construction? The section that is 40 and 85 combined used to be a nightmare!

To make this truly realistic, you'd need some kind of reduced-capacity highways, combined with some of those traffic-generating lots and swarms of over-aggressive state troopers! For anyone who doesn't know, BE CAREFUL DRIVING THROUGH NORTH CAROLINA. They have a huge number of cops. I still notice driving around the south that if someone on the highway is going too slow in the left lane, there's a good chance the car will have NC plates - another terrorized North Carolinian that won't dare go more than 5 miles over the speed limit  .

In fact, I was actually arrested and spent a night in jail in Mecklenberg County (Charlotte) going home to Georgia the summer after my freshman year, for going 80 in a 55. At the time (may still be), NC had a law that anyone from out of state caught going more than 15 mph over the speed limit had to actually be booked and released on bail, so as to guarantee their appearance at the court date. The cop had me drive myself (following him) to the Mecklenberg County Jail in downtown Charlotte and park in front of the building. They took mugshots and fingerprints, took my belt and shoelaces (presumably so I wouldn't hang myself ) and threw my 19-year old butt in jail! You can imagine the "What are you in for?" conversations I had with my cell mates...

I can fully relate to this story snorelli.    When I was in college (back in the early 80's) my parents lived in Winston-Salem.   On my way back to TN (where I was a student at Tenn Tech Univ) I took a "short cut" to meet a friend and go camping.   I passed a maroon Ford Grenada.   Which turned out to be an un-marked state trooper.   To make a long story short...   97 in a 55, Carrying a concealled weapon, evading the law, etc.    A huge bond was posted (by me with my tuition money) and I spent 8+ hours as the guest of Silva County.     Happy ending though.   I got off with a $50 fine plus court cost. ($87 total) 
For years after that I wouldn't drive over the limit.   Especially in Silva County.  (And I lived for a number of years just in the next county.)   LOL

moto of this story (and snorelli's) = Don't speed in North Carolina. 


---Gaston

[snorrelli]

LOL - We ought to be on retainer for the North Carolina State Patrol. I think our testimonials are a whole lot more effective than those "speed checked by detection devices" signs... 

[Gaston]

Yeah,     they could post our pictures and say "Don't end up like these guys.    Drive the Speed Limit!"    LMAO


---Gaston

[Pat]

Aaron wonderfully hand drawn maps.  I bet you had a blast drawing them maps too!!!

[thundercrack83]

You never disappoint, my friend! The hand-drawn maps look fantastic! I can't wait to see them come to life.

[sebes]

Your handdrawn maps are wonderful: so much details in it. I wonder what you make first, the maps or the street-layout in SC4?

[pickled_pig]

Just a peek at what I've been wasting my time on:


A tentative layout of the arterials of Wellington.  We'll probably return to this map a number of times as it nears completion.

-aaron

[Tarkus]

Hi Aaron-

Those are some really nice maps, and I can really appreciate the amount of time you're putting into planning the transportation networks.  Wellington looks very nice, and I'm glad to hear about SR-56's renaming.  Looking forward to seeing more of Wellington and of course, more roadgeekery !

-Alex

[Frankie]

Very nice maps, looks like you put a great deal of time and effort into it, wonderful job

[thundercrack83]

The map looks good! Can't wait to see more!

[Travis]

Looking good. I wish I had your map-making skills, mine are terrible. I can't wait to see the urban areas as well.

Will be watching for more.